Swordplay | Stagefighting
Why Are Sword Fights Such a Favorite?
Unveiling the secrets of swordplay onstage
Are you creating fights onstage or onscreen? Acting out these fights (or even thinking aboug it)? My own preferences shy away from guns or fists — but I am a huge fan of fencing.
There is something about using swords and broadswords that I find absolutely thrilling — and somehow, that seem less violent than other sorts of fighting — even when I know that isn’t true. When I was just out of college, I studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Fencing was part of the program, and the day we had that class was one of my favorite days.
I loved sparring with broadswords, especially, but also enjoyed the lighter touch of fencing. I had only the one beginner’s class, and though I’ve thought about taking more classes quite a bit, I never did get around to it.
At the end of the summer, there was a stage fight performance by our class, with students paired off in partners who performed fight scenes from selected plays. For some reason that I cannot even remember, I did not participate in this session. I can’t imagine I wouldn’t have wanted to, but can only say there was something that kept me from it.
The event happened on a bright, warm day in San Francisco as the sun lit up the room. Students and faculty gathered on one side of the gym as my classmates performed. While most involved fencing, there were also great examples of hand-to-hand combat and broadswords. And while it’s a cliché to say my heart “leapt” while watching them, I couldn’t help but wish I’d participated, thinking, “You really could — if you only would.”
Since that summer, I met a fencing teacher who seems to really enjoy his work; seen a lot of staged fencing fights in theater and movies; and mostly, shelved any fencing ambitions I may have had.
Yet, I have begun to think about taking a stage-fighting swordplay class in the future. What would that look like? Would I even be able to handle it? I imagine it would be my own version of what others do when they try extreme sports or mountain climbing. As I’m just recovering from a surgery, it may be some time before I can try such a thing. But just the thought of it makes me feel a little better about the recovery process.
Meanwhile, I walked into the living room a few days back while my husband was watching The Goldbergs. He was watching a scene of boys engaged in swordplay, holding garbage can lids as shields. They were fencing in the rain, and the swords looked large and medieval. The scene made me think I’m not the only one who likes swordplay on stage and in film.
I don’t want to turn this article into a tip-listicle, because I know you can find that anywhere. What most intrigues me is the way characters reveal themselves when they’re engaging in swordplay — and this is from a writer’s point of view.
I first saw a married couple fencing when watching The Addams Family as a child. It seemed to make the chemistry between Morticia and Gomez so much more alive than other choices would have been. Of course, Zorro was all about that too (but I found the Addamses more interesting).
When writing book three of the Beat Street series (which will be the final novel), I invented a fencing teacher for one of the characters. This particular character is struggling with a disorder that no one can diagnose, and I wanted to give him something he could enjoy.
What really draws me to online fencing? Like boxing and other combat sports, it seems to have a lot in common with dancing. That can be true for other types of stage/film combat — such as the fight scenes in West Side Story, which riveted me when I first saw them.
While this fascination with swords and other stylized combat is, again, something that only interests me on stage or in film, the feelings around it are very real. That’s what led me to write a screenplay that contained swordfights, which I worked on many years.
That screenplay has been on hold for quite a while, but I thought it might be fun to share what I learned when trying to direct the first scene of this story.
1. Swordplay in a film should be accompanied by archery, especially if you’re doing something in medieval England (where some of the most fun swordfights happen, in my view). Think of the old Robin Hood challenges to the Sherrif of Nottingham tournaments (to say nothing of Lord of the Rings). You need archery to complement your sword fights.
2. Do not ask your eight-year-old to stay on a horse for too long.
3. Find someone to train your eight-year-old to stage swordplay, even if he doesn’t touch a sword in your film. Otherwise, he may want to go home, and if that happens, you’ll never hear the end of it.
4. Make sure everyone has sword and fencing training if they’re anywhere near a sword and you’re trying to make a film with them.
5. Or, find people who are already trained, because training can be expensive.
6. Ask a choreographer to stage the swordfights. It will be so much more interesting if you can.
7. Find the right equipment — and do not use garbage can lids for shields unless that really fits with your characters.
Finally, think about the characters you’re inventing and see if you can get the actors to think about them too — especially when and how and where they engage in fighting onstage or in film. As I said previously, characters can reveal a LOT about themselves when they are fighting — just as they can when they do everything else.
Because audiences tend to either love stage fights or become bored by them, it’s crucial that you make sure each actor has a very specific approach to fighting (even if it involves putting a bag over their heads and running away screaming.)
Then there’s music. It adds so much in film and fight scenes are almost dependent on the music that accompanies them. Still, it’s harder to add that kind of music onstage. Is there something you can do instead, like having your characters talk or banter while fighting? Unless you’re writing a musical, I think this issue is something we all have to try and figure out.
If you are curious about stage fighting, I encourage you to try it — or just try a fencing class, to see if it’s fun for you. Speaking for myself, swinging a broadsword around gave me a new level of confidence when I was taking acting classes at the conservatory I attended.
Maybe it’s about trying something out of your comfort zone; or daring yourself to do something you never have before. I tend to think it’s both — or about turning something scary (like fighting) into something artistic. That’s what has always attracted me about stage arts. They give us ourselves, only better.
To me, that’s a lot.
